Zipping through the woods, across a river or down a mountain has been on my mind for some years. My father-in-law, Fredric Rhode, and I used to talk about the possibility of a zip line (we didn't call it that then) running down from a hill and across the stream at his cabin near Boulder, Colorado. He had the cable from an old mining operation. All we needed was some way of attaching it.
Then after being in Alaska for a couple of summers, I thought about the same possibility at our cabin on the Goodpaster River. A zip line running across the river - wouldn't that be cool?
Then there's our house in Oregon. We're up on a hill - a zip line would be a fun way to go down the hill and into the woods. The only challenge would be braking to a stop at the bottom and then having to hike back up the hill through the poison oak.
So when it came to choosing an activity yesterday, the Ecotour Ziptrek sounded like fun. The tour was eco-friendly and the young guides gave us some background on Queenstown and a message for sustainability, along with a very safe trip through four short trips between tree houses. We also learned how to zip along with no hands or even upside down. The four zips were rather short. By the time we got through we had also lost some elevation going down the mountain and we had to make up for it with a long climb back up to retrieve our stuff. Good exercise, I guess.
The other rather comical event came as I tried to videotape the trip through the woods. The first two times I turned on the video camera, which was attached to my harness, but it was pointed down instead of up. I got good audio but no video, unless you count the blackness of my shirt. I corrected my error the third time, but somehow it didn't record. So the 4th time, everything was set and ready. However, I wanted to try riding upside down and consequently, the camera flipped over and recorded where I had been, upside down. It's pretty comical, all right.
It was interesting to note that the forest was Douglas fir trees imported from the Pacific Northwest. The mountain was once bare and they wanted something fast growing to prevent flooding. The firs did the job, however, now they would like to replace them with beech, which is more native to New Zealand. The firs are tall, messy and grow like crazy. We've heard more than one story like that since we arrived. Look up moa in Wikipedia and see what you learn about sustainability.
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| Notice how you step off into space |
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| The leaders with yellow hats |
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| Sandra zipping off into the woods |
Enjoy the photos!
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